Seku Amadu

Seku Amadu (Ahmadu ibn Muhammadu Lobbo, c. 1776 – 20 April 1845) was a Fulbe marabout who founded the Massina Empire (the Diina of Hamdullahi) in the Inner Niger Delta of present-day Mali and ruled it, with the title Almami, from 1818 until his death. ^{1 2} He led the jihad that overthrew Bambara overlordship and founded a state at Hamdullahi governed under a strict Maliki application of Sharia, extending his authority to Djenné and Timbuktu. ¹ His son Amadu II and then his grandson Amadu III succeeded him. ³

The French article's body gives his birth in 1776 at Malangal, a village near Mopti, while its infobox gives 1775 or 1776 in Macina. ² The sources differ on who taught him in the Qadiriyya: the English article states expressly that he was a pupil of the Qadiriyya Sufi teacher Sidi Mukhtar al-Kunti, citing Hunwick (2004). ¹ The French article instead names the Sufi Kabara Farma as the man who initiated him into the Qadiriyya, citing Boly's thesis on Sufism in Mali (2013), and calls him in its lead a Fulbe marabout and adherent of the Qadiriyya. ² The French article on the Macina Empire states that its founder was a member of the Qadiriyya Sufi confraternity. ⁴ The museum states both teacher traditions openly and drops neither: the personal Qadiriyya adherence is the same attestation in both, though the teacher's name differs.

His rise began with the jihad he led for the Fulbe Muslims against Bambara rule, and the French empire article dates the state's founding to the battle of Noukouma in 1818. ⁴ He founded his capital at Hamdullahi — written Hamdallaye in the French article — the centre of the theocratic state known as the Diina. ^{1 2} The state's law rested on the strict Maliki interpretation of Sharia according to the English article, and the English empire article likewise describes the Grand Council's decisions as resting on the Maliki interpretation of Sharia. ^{1 3} His authority ran from Timbuktu to Mopti on the French article, and took in Djenné and Timbuktu on the English one. ^{4 1}

The English empire article describes his state in its lead as a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa — a descriptor of the state, not an attestation of its founder's personal school, and the museum uses it only as such. ³ The picture the sources give of his state is of rigorous religious rule whose law was Maliki, a property of the system of government he built. ^{1 4}

Seku Amadu died on 20 April 1845 according to the English biographical article, which gives the date precisely in its lead, infobox and closing narrative, leaving the empire to his son Amadu II. ¹ The year is nevertheless debated: the English empire article's body says "Ahmadu died in 1844", citing Sandomirsky's encyclopaedia entry, its rulers list ends his reign in 1844, and the French article gives his death as 1844 or 1845. ^{3 2} The empire article's almami list runs his successors as Amadu II (1845–1852) and then Amadu III (1852–1862). ³

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

The sources disagree over his teacher and his death year, as set out above, and the museum presents both disagreements without silently resolving them: the Qadiri teacher's name differs between the English and French traditions while the affiliation itself is constant, and the death year is 1844 in some references and 1845 in the biographical article. ^{1 2 3} His faith is recorded in the data record as sufi on a documented basis, because his personal adherence to the Qadiriyya is attested by independent sources: his pupilage under a Qadiri teacher in the English article, his description as an adherent of the Qadiriyya in the French article, and his membership of the confraternity in the French empire article. ^{1 2 4} No personal legal school is recorded for him, because the Maliki character the sources describe is that of his state's law and courts — a political fact, not a personal school attestation. ^{1 3}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.